Five NEISD proms set for same date in April

Prom is just around the corner, and students are getting ready for the big day. However, this year five schools in NEISD, Johnson, Reagan, MacArthur, Madison, and Churchill, are having their prom on April 8. This may be a conflict for couples attending different schools. With most students wanting to spend their prom at their own school, clearly there is a decision that needs to be made.

“I feel like it’s really inconvenient for the people who have a boyfriend or girlfriend at a different school. They both probably want to go to their own prom.” senior Erin Lester said. “Tickets are pretty expensive too, so I don’t think many people would want to go to both.”

Tickets for Johnson’s prom are $70, but junior class sponsor, Daniel Farias, doesn’t think that the cost will affect the number of people that attend. Johnson may be among the schools that have prom at one of the nicer venues, so Farias says it will inevitably be expensive.

“The thing is that it really just comes down to the venue. So we have it at the JW Marriott which is a lot more expensive than other places around town. The reason that we have it there is because it’s able to really house the number of students that attend,” Farias said.

Junior Taylor West’s boyfriend is the president of Student Council at Reagan. West says that because of his position, he’s required to attend prom at Reagan leaving West with no other option.

“He tried to see if they could change the date, but they told him he couldn’t,” West said. “I didn’t want to not be able to go to Johnson’s prom, but since he has to go to his, then I’ll have to go with him.”

The set date for the five schools was merely a coincidence. Schools plan their proms separately, so no communication happens between coordinators. Farias stressed the fact that most likely nothing could have been done to change the date because it directly depends on the availability of the venue.

“In terms of other schools having their prom on the same day, it’s really up to the school and the sponsors. We really only coordinate with the place that we’re having it at – we don’t plan together or anything like that, it’s just a coincidence,” Farias said.

Some students are more adamant about going to each school’s prom regardless of the cost. Jacob Teplitz’s girlfriend attends MacArthur, and he wants to make sure they both get to experience their own prom.

“We haven’t really talked about it. I want to go to Johnson’s, but I think we’ll try to go to both,” Teplitz said.

Normally a large number of students attend, so the JW Marriott is an ideal location for Johnson’s prom. Even if they wanted to move the location so that the date may be able to change, the chances of another venue being able to fit everyone is slim to none.

“Last year we had like over 800 students attend, so there’s not a lot of venues that can accommodate us the way that the JW Marriott can,” Farias said.

Although the majority of students aren’t having to choose between two proms, it’s a difficult decision to make.

“If it were me, it’d depend on how many people I know are going to each prom, and that’s how I’d decide,” Lester said. “It’s really unfortunate because I’d want to go to my own school’s prom but obviously there’s only a 50% chance you’ll actually end up going to it”

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About The Author

Laura Navarro is a sophomore at Johnson High School and a first year writer for MyJagNews. She enjoys dancing and hanging out with her friends in her spare time. You'll never see her without her phone, and her favorite app is Twitter.